New Purdue football coach Darrell Hazell starts the Hazell Your Hat trend when he form-fitted this cap on Wednesday, the day he was introduced on campus. / By John Terhune/Journal & Courier

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OK, so Purdue is spending in the neighborhood of $2 million a year over the next six years on Darrell Hazell, a new head coach called on to start racking up wins and put fans back in the Ross-Ade Stadium bleachers.

Doubling down, athletic director Morgan Burke calls it. Hazell’s predecessor, Danny Hope, made less than half that much in the last of his four years on the Purdue sideline. With that kind of jack, you buy yourself an instant buzz. (“I had a lot of people writing and texting and emailing me today about, ‘I’m back on board. I’m renewing my John Purdue Club tickets,’ ” Burke said shortly after introducing Hazell on campus Wednesday night.)

But the second biggest investment in instant good feelings and high expectations came in the form of the black, Nike brand ball cap Burke handed Hazell that night. Price tag: $16 at Purdue’s online shop.

If you haven’t done it already, you need to get your best Purdue lid and Hazell your hat.

Yeah. Hazell your hat.

It’s a thing. It’s the thing.

In an inexplicable age of flat-brimmed ball caps, Hazell took his first Purdue cap, cupped his palms on either side of the brim and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Get it form fitting,” he said.

The hat lasted above his clean-shaven head and pinstriped shoulders for all of about 10 seconds that night. But it was enough to launch waves on social media — Coach Hazell’s Hat had its own Twitter account (@CoachHazellsHat) by Thursday morning and the hashtag #HazellUrHat is making the rounds. Grown men and dorm dwellers alike rounded the brims of their hats the way some Notre Dame fans probably fingered rosary beads to greet coach Brian Kelly three seasons ago.

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As they say in the marketing world, that’s some solid earned media.

But fixing the brim on hats across campus is the easy part for Hazell.

What else does he have to Boiler Up demoralized troops — other than producing the tonic of a long winning streak? Especially with the promise of higher ticket prices coming to help pin up that doubled salary.

“If I need to get out on the campus and visit fraternity houses and the dorms, I’ll do that to get the fans back into the stadium,” Hazell said. “But I think there needs to be an energy. ... It’s going to take all of us to win a championship. The more fans and the louder the fans are, the better they are on third down, the better the chance we have to win football games.”

Burke seemed confident that Hazell will translate quickly at Purdue, reviving ticket sales that are on a five-year losing streak. (The average announced attendance for the 2012 season was 43,588, down nearly 1,700 from 2011. Average paid attendance was a dismal 37,000.)

“Just look at him,” Burke said, standing apart from a crowd of reporters looking for time with Hazell after his introductory press conference. “Just look at his body of work.”

Until then, Burke suggested looking at the atmosphere at Kent State, where Hazell’s team rolled up an 11-2 record, a Top 25 ranking and the Mid-American Conference school’s first bowl appearance in 40 years.

“Darrell Hazell’s impact on the football culture on campus was quite impressive in the short time he was here,” Shook said.

Shook said Hazell put all of his stock into the past season, and the athletic department was all in, too, with fireworks after every score and wristbands with the team’s “Rise As One” slogan. Shook said the wristbands — along with soccer-style scarves, winter hats and other free swag handed out during games — were in season around campus the entire semester.

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Beyond putting up wins at a school used to .500 seasons, Shook said, Hazell was approachable, and students and the community genuinely liked him.

“I wouldn’t say he’s the Pete Carroll type to mingle with students on campus,” Shook said, referring to the Seattle Seahawks and former Southern California football coach. “(But) he cares about and truly loves his job and the community that surrounds him.”

Of course, Shook pointed out, Kent State students don’t have to buy football tickets.

There’s no free ride at Purdue. And Burke said fans can expect a bump fairly soon.

“I doubled down. But the fans are going to end up doubling down, too,” Burke said, recalling the realities from the school’s efforts to keep its basketball coach from bolting to Missouri two seasons ago.

“Remember when they asked me to do Matt Painter, and they had a little tax? There’s a little tax coming,” Burke said.

“I can do some of it as the leader — but if we’re going to double down and put the resources to it, everyone who cares is going to have to put in a nickel or two. I’m not talking about gazillions. But they’re going to have to help a little bit.”

A full stadium would seem to cover the cost without that tax, but Burke’s point is fair warning before your ticket renewal packet arrives.

Burke said fully investing in Hazell was important to the athletic department and to the university because “we view football as a way to activate our 450,000 living alums.”

But Hazell could do what few Purdue football coaches have done by being visible and engaged in the community — and not just in a few staged events. Those 450,000 living alums live everywhere. Greater Lafayette fans are built in, close and looking for reasons to believe, too.

A Community of Choice report released earlier this year lamented the disconnect felt between Purdue and Greater Lafayette — offering a bit of blame to both sides for that divide. Other Big Ten towns — including Iowa City, Madison, Wis., and Ann Arbor, Mich. — seemed joined at the hip with their schools. Hazell has bigger things on his plate than closing that gap. But it’s something the athletic department and the football program should see as an opportunity — particularly if this really is about finding fans willing to show up at Ross-Ade Stadium on seven Saturdays each fall and reviving an operation that brought in $19.2 million in 2011-12 revenues.

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Burke seems to believe that can be done.

“At the end of the day, the Bridge Walk downtown, the stuff we started with the storefront (decorating) contest, the flag flying — those things need to become ingrained in our culture,” Burke said of three efforts targeted at Greater Lafayette fans in recent seasons.

The fan-friendly Bridge Walk, held on Fridays before games, featured the football team crossing from West Lafayette to downtown Lafayette on the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge.

“You know, the Bridge Walk was really taking off,” Burke said. “Unless the weather’s crummy, we’ll have 300, 400 people, particularly early in the fall. And I think that symbolizes the town and gown.”

And it symbolizes a ready-and-willing fan base waiting for one thing: A good reason to invest in a seat, the way Purdue invested in a coach.